I am sitting at the GetEqual table for the Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Q&A session at Netroots Nation where we are breaking exclusive news on the Blend.

Dan Choi has delivered a letter to Sen Reid about his service and DADT — and his West Point ring will be given to Reid today. Joan McCarter handed Reid letter and ring from Dan Choi:

July 24, 2010

The Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader:

Dear Harry:

My West Point ring has always symbolized an irrevocable promise: my commitment to serving America and my duty to defend freedom and justice. Today, with my discharge from the army for telling the truth, the ring takes on a new meaning, serving as a symbol for the enduring pain of broken promises.

America was founded on the principles of inalienable rights, equality, and the promise of justice for all. But today, Americans remain segregated from that promise. Fired from our jobs, discriminated in the military, denied equal access to our own integrity and acknowledgement of our families, we cannot conclude that our country has manifested its own promise, over 230 years later.

You have also made personal promises to me that the senate would repeal military discrimination before the end of 2009. Indeed, you sent a letter to President Obama and Secretary Gates, claiming that was the most you could do to save my career. You promised to lead on repeal of discrimination. I believed your promise because you are the most powerful senator in America. Truly, no one can do more. The false hope of your promise has been made real to me today with another letter: the letter terminating my military service.

But I present this ring to you, symbolizing my promise as a fellow citizen: my service continues.

I promise I will hold you accountable to your obligations to lead in the effort to end discrimination, both in the workplace and in the military. My promise is not merely written on a piece of paper or words alone, but in the hearts of every lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender American fired from their jobs because of broken promises from those who purport to be our friends. History will judge us and conclude that the greatest obstacles to justice were not the loud rants of bigots, but the quiet fears of those unwilling to stand firm in the fulfillment of their commitments. I refuse to allow my friends register themselves in history as obstacles to justice.

I commit to you my renewed pledge and continued service. To you and all those “friends” who manipulate, deceive and exploit our community, I will serve as a reminder of the consequences we all pay when allegiance to political careers takes higher priority than allegiance to America’s promise.

weak languageon Senator Reid’s behalf.
“it seems to me that the time has come” rather than than something like “now is the time” or heck “yesterday was the time, but lets not delay any longer”
His support’s faint & passive nature is belied by his qualified language.

The giving of his West Point ring is……poignant?… bittersweet?… I don’t know how to describe it, but it hit me right in the solar plexus. To present such a symbol of one’s dedication and perseverance to US military service to someone who… uh… isn’t quite an enemy [like DUB-yuh] and isn’t quite a friend [like Patrick Murphy] is… is… POTLATCH! I knew there was a way to describe it!!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…
The shorthand version: Potlatch is/was a custom of the Pacific Northwest tribes as a redistribution of wealth and a ceremonial manner for tribes to prove to each other how powerful they were by the amount and value of the possessions they were willing to give away! In fact the Canadian government banned the practice citing [from Wikipedia]:

Potlatching was made illegal in Canada in 1885 and the United States in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it “a worse than useless custom” that was seen as wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to “civilized” values.

IOW: The RELIGIONISTS thought it was stupid.
Meanwhile, thank you, Lt. Choi, for being Out There for the rest of us… And thank you for the gift to Senator Reid and all it stands for: Your all… everything you have worked for… Everything.
Potlatch.

Thanks to GoodAsYou.org, here’s video…
Alas, most of the audio is unintelligible except for something about giving the ring back to Dan when the bill is signed. But the visuals are powerful including the standing ovation when he’s given Dan’s ring and, a few minutes later, he and Dan hugging.

I have more fondnessand more genuine affection for Lieutenant Dan Choi with each passing week, it seems. Our community is so fortunate to have a champion like him. If only the Solmoneses, Rosens and Mirabellas among us had so much grace and courage.

Really, Harry??!!Thanks for participating in good theater, but your monologue came up lacking. The actions of the current Administration in the ten months since your letter to Mssrs. Obama and Gates suggests that you have no power here. Shame that no one had the right mind to shout “Begone, before somebody drops a house on you, too!”

But strong imaginary As anyone knows, I’m the first to decry meaningless gestures and scream “Where’s the beef?” but if you think about it, Reid made a very powerful statement about where his loyalties line.
Pictures of this will circulate in the RW media talking about Reid’s great close relationship with “a known radical gay activist!!!”
There are so many ways Reid might have chosen to handle this moment, that would have not been respectful to Dan, but safer. He didn’t do that, he was a stand-up guy.
And he handed out community a powerful new mantra: “Leader Reid, return that ring!”

“Moderator Joan McCarter handed Reid Dan Choi’s West Point ring, chocking up as she explained that Choi said, ‘it doesn’t mean what it used to mean any more’. Surprised, Reid accepted the ring, then McCarter handed him a letter from Choi regarding his discharge. … That ring symbolized not just the man, Dan Choi, but all the LGBT people serving in silence at home and abroad, all the LGBT people who have fought hard, played by the rules and earned rings like that because America says merit matters. And here was Lt. Dan Choi – former Lt. Dan Choi, discharged on the government’s counterfeit charge that Choi lacks military merit because he is gay – giving that ring back to the symbol of the U.S. government because the meaning of the ring had become counterfeit to Choi. Reid appeared to not know what to do. And in a moment, he went from the leader of the US Senate to a man and a father.” – Karen Ocamb, lgbtpov.com

very touching.Look at Reid’s face – like a kid when he knows he’s done something wrong – and how he immediately jumped to talk about his family – this was personal, for the moderator too, and I think the message was heard loud and clear. These issues affect real people’s lives in tangible ways. I think the personal appeal was a great idea. Really fantastic piece of activism. Keep it Dan! And thanks Pam for breaking the story!

Found an amazing quote yesterday“After more than fifty years in the military and politics, I am still amazed to see how upset people can get over nothing. Lifting the ban on gays in the military isn’t exactly nothing, but it’s pretty damned close.
Eevryone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Ceasar. They’ll still be serving long after we’re all dead and buried. That should not surprise anymore.”
This quote is from that noted liberal, Sen. Barry Goldwater.

As you may know….
In 1993, when DEMOCRATIC Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Sam Nunn found out that Goldwater [who had preceded Nunn as SASC Chair and, thus, should have been afforded great respect even as a Repug] was going to testify FOR lifting the ban he wouldn’t let him.
So Goldwater had to go onto Larry King’s show and pen a WAPO Op Ed to be heard….yet the homohating tsunami that Nunn and Colin Powell stirred up drowned him out.

Well, Obama,Where’s the claim that there “isn’t the support in congress” to repeal DADT?
Harry Reid supports the repeal.
Nancy Pelosi supports the repeal.
The House AND Senate Majority Leaders support the bill. If their caucuses disagreed, then they’d have lost their jobs – I notice they haven’t.
Therefore, Obama, YOU are the only thin paper shield behind which the homophobes in the Department of Defense – starting with YOUR Secretary of Defense, Gates – can hide.
What’s your excuse now, “fierce advocate”?